All purpose country buggy

[rbeitz]

I've got a 1992 EZ-GO that we use around the house in the early spring for gardening and yard work. Summers it gets hauled down to my place on the Chesapeake Bay and we drive it all over the community (To the pool, marina, pier, club house etc..). It has worked very well for the 7 years we have owned it but the frame and battery trays are starting to rust some from being near the salt water so much.

I paid $1500 and it was in excellent condition at the time. It is still stock but lift kits and larger tires are available for it for a few hundred dollars. The stock setup works just fine for me though.

It needed new batteries last year and the best price I could find was at Sams Club. Was $50/battery and you need 6 of them.

 

[budman72]

I love the look of that wooden buggy! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I have an old buggy frame that I found at a ranch in WY last summer, just the frame, axle and springs. I bet I could convert it. Too bad I had an old Ariens 10 HP riding mower that I sold a couple months ago. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Pretty dumpy, didn't cut worth a hoot, but the engine was good. I now wish I had kept it just for the drivetrain. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Bud

 

[HickoryNut]

Golf cart. Electric. I bought this '99 Club two years ago for $1700. Another $650 for the 6" lift, wheels & tires. Pulls my flatbottom boat, manure spreader, or a little trailer with 1/2 rick of wood, 18 bales of hay, or up to 20 sacks of feed. And I've seen a half dozen thirteen yo boys pile on it without complaint. In two years the only breakdown has been a broken battery cable. Comfort, safety, carefree reliability. Marginal brakes are their only weak point. If you go flat out on the road the batteries will weaken in about 45 minutes at 10-12 miles. If you go slow with frequent rests it will go 30 miles no problem. Since this pic I've added a winch to the front making it the ultimate fence construction partner. I originally bought it as a temporary investment to chase off poachers and trespassers but I couldn't live without it now. I'd recommend a '97 or newer model as the solid-state circuitry that was introduced then is much more efficient than the old resistor-coil type speed control. Most carts '00 and newer have regenerative braking which is highly desirable but also very high priced.

 

[centex]

If one were up to doing some customizing, you could get an old Subaru all wheel drive vehicle and turn it into a pretty nice go anywhere utility vehicle. It seems to me that you could do that for a lot less than the $5-10K that they want for a utility vehicle and you would have a much heavier duty and more reliable machine. Of course if you don't already have tools and experience then then the utility vehicle would be much cheaper. I have an old (1934) International pickup truck that I am going to turn into a farm utility truck. It should not be very difficult to make the bed into a dump bed. I was going to use it for a street rod but I could not justify the cost of insurance to put it on the road so I will just use it off road. I have to see what I can do to make it 4WD. Maybe I can use the running gear from a Subaru in it. I bought this truck for $750 back in 1981 and before I knew it I had spent $40,000 on tools and parts for it. I had not been keeping track of what I spent until someone asked me what I had spent on it and I was shocked when I totaled everything up. Of course the tools can and have been used for many other things but I bought them specifically for the truck. This all started because I decided that I needed a truck to haul lumber for my woodworking hobby and I thought the big trucks were much too expensive and the small trucks were much too flimsy. I could have saved myself a LOT of work and money by just buying a new 3/4 ton truck!!!! I am just glad my wife does not know how much I spent on that truck. She thinks it is a lot but she thinks it was probably around $4000.

 

[DAP]

I know this buggy might be "practical", but lose those butt-ugly schwinn wheels! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Kinda like puttin bowlin shoes on a horse. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif